


Six Ages

by classiqfemme



Category: Necessary Roughness
Genre: Allusions to Violence, Character Study, Gen, References to Canonical Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2017-12-17 14:48:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/868767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/classiqfemme/pseuds/classiqfemme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quick one-shot of Nico through the years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Six Ages

                Nico’s first assignment is full of sand and smoke. His captain orders him to shoot on sight, so he does. He’s eighteen and shoots a boy younger than himself.  He doesn’t write home.

                He’s older and wears stripes. He leads his men into flames. He fucks up. He writes his guilt into pages of A2 paper. Dear Mr. and Mrs. Barr/Everett/Sorensen/Grant… The next week he does better. Dear Mr. and Mrs. Able… Dear Mrs. Prewitt…  Nico scrubs his boots clean of Niehaus’s blood and gets back to work. He earns a Purple Star but doesn’t use any more paper.

                Careles is twenty-five and water floods his nose. He fights, he kicks, he sputters a scream. He gives up the information. He fails. The next time he fights, he kicks, he sputters a scream. The next time he gurgles the answer around drowned confessions. His first mission is full of sand and smoke. 

                Nico Careles is forty and retired. His pension goes to the VA and a widow who shouldn’t be. The only man still willing to take a bullet for him asks a favor. Careles moves to New York.

                Nico Careles is forty-six and his friend is tangled in an estuary.  He won’t be missed.

                Nico is forty-seven and re-filling his scotch. He doesn’t bother with the lights. 


End file.
